1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a resin-sealed connector for connecting an electric equipment, provided in a transmission, to an external control device, and more particularly to a resin-sealed connector in which a step portion is formed at a guide plate to serve as an mark indicative of an upper limit of filling of a sealing resin in a housing.
2. Related Art
One conventional resin-sealed connector is shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, and this connector will now be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 4 is a partly cross-sectional, perspective view of the conventional resin-sealed connector. FIG. 5(a) is an enlarged view of an important portion of FIG. 4, and FIG. 5(b) is a plan view of FIG. 5(a). FIG. 6 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the resin-sealed connector.
In FIGS. 4 and 6, reference numeral 100 denotes the conventional resin-sealed connector (female connector). This resin-sealed connector 100 is mounted at an opening portion formed in a transmission casing (not shown), through an O-ring 101, and this connector is used to connect an electric equipment (e.g. an oil temperature sensor or a solenoid valve for operating a solenoid valve), provided in the transmission, to an external control device.
This resin-sealed connector 100 includes a housing 110 bent at right angles, and a hood 111 to be disposed outside of the transmission casing is formed integrally at an upper end of this housing.
A plurality of bus bar-like male terminals 130 are insert molded in the housing 110, and project into the interior of the hood 111. These male terminals 130 are connected respectively to female terminals in a mating connector (male connector) (not shown) fitted into the hood 111.
A guide plate 120 for preventing the prying of the mating connector to be fitted into the hood 111 is provided in a projected manner within the hood 111.
As shown in FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b), a body portion 121 of the guide plate 120 is partially smaller in thickness than its base portion 122, and with this construction, reinforcing ribs 121a are formed on opposites side surfaces of the body portion 121, and also step portions 122a are formed at the boundary between the body portion 121 and the base portion 122.
As shown in FIG. 6, a sealing resin 140 is filled in the hood 111 so as to prevent the leakage of oil in the transmission casing which would be caused by an capillary action.
Here, if the amount of the sealing resin 140 filled in the hood 111 is small, the oil leakage prevention effect is lowered. In contrast, if the amount of the sealing resin 140 is large, there is encountered a disadvantage that the mating connector can not be completely fitted into the hood 111 when the sealing resin 140 is solidified
Therefore, in the conventional construction, the step portions 122a, formed at the guide plate 120, are disposed at such a position as to serve as a mark indicative of an upper limit of the filling of the sealing resin 140, and the sealing resin 140 is supplied up to these step portions 122a, and by doing so, an appropriate amount of sealing resin 140 is filled in the hood 111.
In the above conventional resin-sealed connector 100, the opposite side surfaces of the body portion 121 of the guide plate 120, including the reinforcing ribs 121a, are partially continuous with the opposite side surfaces of the base portion 122, respectively, as shown in FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b).
Therefore, because of a surface tension, the sealing resin 140, filled up to the step portions 122a serving as the upper limit mark, projects beyond the upper limit at the regions (see circles in FIG. 7) where the body portion 121, including the reinforcing 20 ribs 121a, is continuous with the base portion 122, as shown in FIG. 7. This results in a problem that the projected sealing resin 140 interferes with the mating connector, thereby causing the incomplete fitting connection of the connector.